Thomas Lionblood has now finished Act 2 of Baldur's Gate and destroyed the evil Kethric Thorn.
The Friendly Necromancer says "Bai Felicia" to the Evil Necromancer
I've been playing gobs of BG3 lately (an unhealthy amount of gob to be honest). Playing a "friendly" non-lethal necromancer has proven challenging, but I always seem to find corpses lying around that I can harvest undead from. Now at level 8 (just turned 9) I'm able to summon some pretty amazing thralls of undead to follow me around. I can't wait to see what it's like at level 12!
Me and THIS army, that's who!
Along the way I've managed to encounter a few things I've never run into before on my previous 2 play-throughs. A friend at work told me there was a way I could become "The god of the fish people" in their words. I was like, "Wait, are you talking about the Sahuagin? Because I ran into those at a temple in Baldur's Gate." And she was like, "No, I'm talking about the Kuotoa." And I was like, "WHAT?! There's Kuotoa in this game?" Badda bing badda boom . . . I'm now the god of the fish people.
My first commandment should have been to get rid of the fish smell.
Also while stumbling around in the Underdark looking for Kuotoa, I managed to run into a Spectator and have a horribly difficult fight. Thank goodness for small damage magic missiles to wake up people from their paralyzation.
Not an easy fight at that level.
I've also swapped out Wyll for Halsin after successfully thwarting a gigantic gang of ne'er-do-wells that was hellbent on destroying his portal to another dimension. I had failed that once before on another playthrough, so I kind of knew what was coming and was able to prepare for it.
Halsin is the best!
Halsin is fun to play with his shapeshifting abilities. He has a wild plethora of wild shapes he can morph into; although, for some reason, those animal shapes really get in the way of the dialog camera sometimes. Just sayin'.
Anyway, next up will be to try my hand at getting Alfira the bard to come and join up with me in Baldur's Gate since I've never done that before. It's going to be hard to swap out Asterion for Alfira, but a friendly necromancer gotta do what a friendly necromancer gotta do. Sorry, Asterion.
I'll just have to make sure she's good at unlocking doors and chests I suppose.
With any luck, I'll be done with this play-through in another week and I can move on to Path of Exile 2. (I'm through Act 1 in PoE2, but BG3 is totally all-consuming right now).
Ok, SORRY. I thought I was done with Baldur’s Gate 3. I really did, but then I remembered I also really would love to make a Friendly Necromancer in the game . . . and . . . well . . . here we are: Thomas Lionblood from Wizard101 in Baldur’s Gate 3.
Medium Length Blue Hair -- check! Elfish, Youthful good looks -- check!
Now, there’s really no way for me to actually simulate your standard Wizard101 necromancer in Baldur’s Gate 3. There just isn’t. There are no cards for spells, no power pips, no massive health drain spells, and certainly no traps, charms, and all that jazz – this isn’t a turn-based, family-friendly card game. That all said I CAN do non-lethal knock-out damage.
Non-lethal Necromancy for the win!
For now, I’ll just be going with your standard “Wizard” Necromancer. I say that because there’s more than one way to skin a Necromancer in D&D. Death Domain clerics are actually going to be one of the latest and greatest things to hit Baldur’s Gate 3 with the release of Patch 8. You could also do a Warlock with an Undead Patron (Although, I don't think that's a thing in BG3 . . . only D&D?), a Circle of Spores Druid, an Oathbreaker Paladin, or perhaps you could even do a kind of Bard Necro-dancer type build (I do love my bards). Thomas Lionblood, however, is definitely a wizard from a wizard school type of Friendly Necromancer.
I'll mess around with a Necronomicon and be super friendly about it while I do.
Now I just need to figure out what his supporting cast will be. I’m currently leaning toward a fighter, cleric, and warlock combo to go with my necromancer. It definitely seems balanced, but I’m not sold on it yet. If my summons are good enough, perhaps I don’t really need the fighter and warlock . . . I don’t think I can replace the cleric though . . . I’m addicted to healing spells.
I tried running with a Monk hireling for a bit, but I don't know if I love it
Hmmm . . . if I could complete his major quest in Act 2, then maybe Halsin would be a good alternative or perhaps Alfira?
Anyway, these are future me problems. For now, I’m just happy to be The Friendly Necromancer playing a friendly necromancer in Baldur’s Gate 3.
OVERKILL . . . and special thanks goes out to Vanessa Mythdust and Katherine Light of the Mercenaries for Hire for sticking it out, sharing the strat, and killing the rat. At the end of the day it's a pretty simple strat, but also a pretty unforgiving one as well. Vanessa tells me she still needs to update the guide after the addition of the Spinysaur hits and the fact you CAN use a healing pet, but if you're looking for a guide, check it out.
And with that, Polaris is done for Thomas Lionblood. MAN, I REALLY LIKED POLARIS! It wasn't too difficult, had a really fun story, and was pretty, uh, chill. (Sorry for that pun.) I'm putting that as one of my favorite worlds of all time.
We met some solid new enemies like Rasputin and this guy . . . Pit Boss Minak, who you get to take down a couple times.
Beware anyone that offers you green crystal implants, Minak . . . it won't end well . . . even if they look amazing under black lights and everyone wants to dance next to you at the club.
I also took the time to grab my new Winged Sorrow Death spell while I was at it -- livestreamed it in fact! Here's the highlight if you'd like to check it out.
The new camera pans during dialog in Polaris?! I rate them 10/10 amazing.
Now I need to go back and finish up all my side quests on Thomas and maybe grab a few extra pieces of gear from Darkmoor. THAT, sounds like good Twitch fodder for over the holidays.
(Tom and the Dings should be my next band name . . .) You blink your eyes and a month has gone by since your last post. HOW DOES THAT HAPPEN?!
I just wanted to catch you up a bit on my gaming life here and let you know I'm all good . . . I didn't die in a turkey explosion over Thanksgiginv. :)
Several weeks back someone from the Marketing team said, let's all play Star Wars together! And surprisingly five of us were like . . . I'm in! Well, it didn't work out so good. Half of us subscribed and half of us didn't, and the disparity in levels caused most to fizzle out and stop playing after a couple of weeks.
I kept playing since I had never really given the game a fair handshake. I mean, I had tried the game, got a few quests into the tutorial, sent a child off to his death as a sith, and said . . . nope nope nope . . . I'm done. It disturbed me, and I didn't want anything to do with the game.
This time I played a good guy making good guy choices, and my experience was much different. This here is Pokétom the level 65 (max level) Smuggler (Scoundrel sub-class) and his wookie companion, Bowdaar. He's a rogue with a heart of gold ala Han Solo. ;)
Oh, he's a joy and a pleasure to look at, my friends. *whistles* Strangely enough he's not wearing his banana pants anymore. (Thank you to my friends who showed up to watch me play SWTOR a few weeks ago over Twitch. The joke is in the link. ;))
Now, as with most MMOs, the "real game" starts when you hit max level, but I'm not heavily invested enough and don't really have the time to build my gear profile and raid and all that, so . . . I'm officially unsubscribed.
I enjoyed my time playing Pokétom to max level, and it was an entertaining story. There were plenty of opportunities for me to make light and dark choices, but I'm definitely a light side of the force type of guy. Between my time in SWTOR and rewatching all the old Star Wars, I will be sufficiently hyped for December 18th when the force awakens and all that. YESH!
~~
Next, I have to talk about Rise and Destroy! I beat level 60!
Wootah! I had so much fun playing Rise and Destroy. I'm still playing it to collect gold and power up my monsters. I was more than happy to provide a couple of play through videos for a couple of my Twitter followers. I don't think I'd spoil all the levels for everyone, and there's more than one way to finish a level, but in case you'd like to check the game out . . . here you go:
I pretty much have to play this game on Bluestacks unfortunately. A few people at my work tell me that's cheating, but listen . . . I can't even play the game on my iPhone 4S. This game is optimized for play on larger and more powerful devices, and I don't have one. I would prefer to play this game on a tablet, but Santa has a long wish list from me and I don't think an iPad is in my near future. ;)
As far as cheap tablet emulators go, I've been pretty happy with my Bluestacks experience. Good stuff as far as I'm concerned.
~~
Finally, let's talk Wizard101!
I'm late to the party here, but Polaris has released and that means Thomas Lionblood's progression to level 110 can begin again. Last night, Thomas Lionblood with the assistance of my Russian buddy, Boris the OP Storm wizard (and his Glowbugs), hit level 101 in Wizard101!
Per standard Wizard101 play, I'd blade up Boris, feint the boss a few times . . and BOOM! Zdravstvuyte to the damage, and do svidaniya to the enemies.
I also got a chance to spend some time as our lady Morganthe.
I loved those fights in the Chamber of the Mind! Those were extremely fun, and I loved playing as Morganthe. Gotta say, my ninja pig healing pet was a super star for me in that final fight. :) Go LADY DEXTER!
I'll be joining you all in Polaris as soon as I can. :)
~~
Hope you're all doing well and having fun with what you're doing. Drop me a note in the comments below and let me know what you've been playing lately and how things are going for you.
Hello, friends! I have a story wrapped within a story and a conclusion to a story for you today! If it sounds exciting, it is! If it sounds complex, well, lemme unravel that for you. :)
Back on Day 10 of Blaugust I reported a trip through Darkmoor that netted a Khrulhu spell for one Thomas Lionblood. Today I finished up that trip, with no deaths to report, and a big KO to Malistaire the Undying.
And it was all thanks to the amazing team of Alura, Lucas, and Boris . . . my new favorite Russian Wizard101 fan and husband and wife team.
Yay long list of loot!
I learned a lot and would definitely like to run that a few more times.
For the Yevgeny fight I was on blade duty for Boris. Not much to worry about there! Alura (who has two max level wizards of every class . . . in standard mega-fan fashion) was quick to hand over a few conviction Treasure Cards, and the blades flowed like honey.
For the Shane Von Shane fight I was on low-pip damage spell duty and just plunked away on him with dark pixie, vampire, wand strikes, and banshees while the two storm wizards did that thing they do so well!
Then came Malistaire the Undying. Here I played backup heals for Alura and some shielding duty with a little Shadow Sentinel, and it really did work well . . . Sentinel saved Boris at the end! Great team work all around for sure.
Good to see that Malistaire is finally a mega fan . . . although he probably still has issues, I wish him nothing but the best in his retirement.
Anyway, back to the real star of the show . . . Boris! Boris is awesome! He has a full fish collection in his myth house . . . one of every fish to be found.
How did I meet this magnificent wizard? Well, funny story . . . I had left myself afk after the last KI Live, and he waited along with a group of 10 or so who wanted to say hello when I came back. Usually, I'm pretty quick to unplug since overtime is pretty much a guarantee on KI Live days, and I'm in a rush to get home. Anyway, I got him on my friends list there (haha, he was pretty persistent)!
It's nice to meet people who are mega fans of Wizard101, and in his own words, that's him! (Probably fits the description of many people who visit my blog, right?)
Speaking of Mega fans . . . our lady Sophia was kind enough to help me out this morning with some bazaar sniping of a few Agave Nectar and Turquoise so I could finish up those left over Crafting quests from Azteca and Khyrsalis.
. . . and finally, my other Comrade besides Boris became a new mega fan of my fishing skills when I finished up Dragonspyre fishing.
Yuri's pretty awesome for a ghost fisherman . . . then again, I can't say I know many ghost fishermen outside of Yuri.
All in all, the mega fans made it a great day in Wizard101 for Thomas Lionblood.
Level 80 for Thomas happened in July 2012. This is when things started to shift for me. Instead of finishing Avalon right after it was released, it took me a few months to get through it . . . That's because Pirate101 had just been revealed and my life was turned upside down as I took a job at KingsIsle.
Level 90 and Azteca was wrapped up by Thomas in May 2013.
. . . and as I said, I *finally* just dinged level 100 last night! Woot!
Reading back through that, it appears the best tips I could give are patience and make friends! Life as a necromancer can be a bit daunting when you solo, and nothing makes Wizard101 more fun (nor easier) than when you play with another person.
1-50 is a breeze. You won't find much trouble soloing anything outside of Malistaire and a few key dungeons here and there. Standard tips apply here: Start your deck light with as few spells as possible so Wizard101 doesn't become a "discard" game trying to find that perfect card -- instead, carry only what you need. Load your treasure cards up smartly with the perfect defensive or utility spell for when you need it. Look at the mob you face before you blindly run in and see what class it is, chances are this will guide which shield you should load into your deck (although most 1-50 fights don't require heavy shielding). If you're soloing, your drain spells are your best bet -- they'll heal you to max and prepare you for the next fight. Learn to cast a death shield on yourself and empower or sacrifice off of it.
Level 50-60 is a gear check. You should start going to the Bazaar every few levels and see what's available for you. You'll most likely start seeing why shields, universal resist, and crit block are so valuable here.
Level 70, take some time out to do waterworks. It's not needed, but most of us at level cap did this, and I would bet Avalon was designed thinking everyone was wearing Waterworks gear and using Sun Magic, so . . . using waterworks gear and using Sun Magic would be a good idea. ;) It's not 100 percent needed, but those universal resists sure help.
Level 80+ -- Find a partner if possible and take a support role to them. You'll discover you're quite handy in a group. Debuffs, blades, sacrifices . . . you've got quite a bit of support power. Spend time getting a good pet to help you with resists and healing. Anyone can fill any role in Wizard101 (tank, dps, support) with the right combination of gear and cards -- just some do it much better. Pick a role and be the best you can be at it.
**READERS! If you have any great tips, please share them in the comments!**
So . . . best of luck, Valdus! Thanks for reading and for your question. Hope to see you at the gates of Darkmoor soon!
Things have been pretty quiet around here at TFN. I've been here though, just lurking in the shadows -- it's kind of what necromancers do. ;)
I've been sitting at level 94-95 in Wizard101 for what feels like a year. (Hold that thought *goes to check on how long it's been since writing about leveling in Wizard101*) Looks like the last I wrote about Thomas Lionblood dinging 93 in Wizard101 was back in June. WOW! Time flies.
I just wanted to let you know I was here and playing lately. In fact, I just dinged 96 this morning and got my hands on some new shadow magic.
Yup, just four more levels to go!
So, enough about me, let's talk KingsIsle! Everything you want to know about the upcoming updates to the game can be found here on the Test Realm notes page.
In a nutshell, you've got four new dungeons coming out, equipment sets, member benefits, combat idle, a ton of fixes and improvements and . . . the main reason I want to get to level 100 . . . Shadow-enhanced spells!
WOOT! (Special thanks to Leala for filming that spells video.)
As long as I'm sharing videos, you should also know there were two new bundles that hit the scene in Walmart and GameStop.
First up, the Mystic Fishing Bundle
Next, the Evergreen Bundle:
The Bundle videos were written, filmed and produced by yours truly. Big hand goes to Damon, our Video Guru for piecing it all together and putting on the polish, and also to TJ for getting the perfect voice over artists for the job.
Of course, the real applause needs to go to the staff that creates these awesome items, houses, pets, and all that. The Wizard101 team did a really great job on all those, don't you think?
Anyway, every day there's something new going on at KingsIsle and we have a lot of fun stuff in the works for the fans. December is ALWAYS a cool (as in frosty cold and awesome) month for our games.
I'll be slipping back into the shadows now. :)
I'll let you know if I ding again and get those Shadow-enhanced spells once they make their way to the live game. That Castle Darkmoor looks tough and fun!!
I hope you had a wonderful weekend and all is well. Leave me a note, tell me what you did in the wonderful world of The Spiral!
Me? I dinged 93 in Wizard101.
Yup, there I am hanging with Sidra So. . . . (head in the way) . . . Knife. OHHHH, yeah, it's Sidra Soaringknife from purple land, otherwise known as Tyrian Gorge.
But I believe all you Pirates call it Devilfish Hollow. yarr!
Hard to tell though until you spin it 180 and put a bunch of green and brown instead of purple and blue, but the similarities as you're wandering around in there is uncanny as far as I'm concerned!
That's magic for you! They look and enter completely different, but once you're inside you can't help but feel like you've seen this place before. It's a special feeling that only people who play Wizard101 and Pirate101 BOTH get. I call it fan-juju. Ok, not really, but that word just came to my mind. I GOTZ FAN-JUJU!
Anyway, I'm enjoying my time in Khrysalis! I like that so far it's focused less on "cheating bosses" and more on "unfair fights," meaning 3 vs. 1 or 4 vs. 1. I'm absolutely sure I'm soon going to run into a harder fight, but quite honestly, Death wizards are built for soloing, and I've been doing that pretty good (no deaths yet). I did run into a kind stranger though between level 92 and 93 and had a nice time questing with her until I went AFK and she zoomed ahead. No worries though--that's just what happens.
So, who all groaned when they saw this awful play on words in the game?
If not, here you go, Brighteyes, enjoy:
OH MAN THAT WAS AWFUL!
Until next time . . . I hope this post brought you much fan-juju.
I really like the urgency in Khrysalis so far! The chase scene in Last Wood with Poul BrokenSword and the urgency brought about by Dyvim being stung . . . those were really cool story enhancers that worked wonders with the pace for me.
Also got another comment, this time from good ol' taliesinharps, "I never depend on crit, but and I cant stress this enough resist and block are
your best friends and a pet with any may cast heal. The crafted gear for death
isnt great but some crowns gear might be useful, the preference is Hades gear
but Water Works is good too (my storm is using that set)"
Nice! How are you doing these days, taliesinharps? I can see you're of the defensive mindset when it comes to this content. Thanks! I'll keep that in mind. I'd call my current set up and deck . . . balanced? I keep hoping that I'll run into an upgraded piece of gear along my path here, but I know how it really works. hehe. The big bang items are with the bosses and they're usually not that easy to get . . . welcome to MMOs, eh?
Of course, you know me, I'd rather not even think about gear. ;)
1. Chrissy The Blesser said, "I am back and playing again too but you got me beat already. My highest (Chrissy
Lionrider) is only lvl 86. Perhaps I'll catch up. :D
Happy bug hunting. :D"
Oh nice! I have no doubt you'll overtake my levels as I march onward to 100, but it sounds like the gauntlet has been thrown! (I wish I had more time to play this game at work rather than simply think and talk about it.) Funny, when you said bug hunting, my first thought was not about insects...
Speaking of which, anybody else seen this disappearing bug act?
2. Alric Ravensinger said, "Put down the Wand and get ye tail back to Flotsam, sir. Jk, lol.
My only tip(s). Play with a friend, and maybe carry a May cast Fairy pet. But since you can heal/attack may not be as bad. Might wanna invest in some Crit [gear] and/or Resist [on the pet]."
Hehe, you know my heart is in Flotsam. :) Although I was dismayed to see Kan Po betraying me yesterday.
As far as gear and pets and whatnot . . . Well I actually do have that going for me, My Ninja Pig pet is a healing dynamo with good resists and I've got both Jade gear and Waterworks gear--I believe I'm wearing a strange combination of the two with a prepaid card piece thrown in for flavor. I found a deck I had set up that's working well enough, but from what I can tell Khrysalis 1 doesn't seem to be too difficult so far, which ain't a bad thing necessarily?
I've been doing a lot of this:
And this:
And this:
like riding an evil bicycle of death magic . . . and it's been pretty fun!
Aside from that . . . Oh writers . . . Look at you go . . .
Doing the wah wah Aquila. Doing the wah wah Aquila.
Seeing that my quest arrow was pointing me toward's Zeus's demise, I snagged one Bailey Skystaff to come help me out. Neither of us had played through Aquila, and it was HIGH TIME, my friends, to conquer Aquila . . . and we did!
ZEUS!
POSEIDON!
Yeah, the first two dungeons didn't provide much of a challenge for us, but I imagine conquering those at the level they are designed for would be quite an accomplishment!
Loved this statue for sure though, right?!
I was going to post more here about my thoughts, but, again, I'm behind the curve on Wizard101 blogging, so I had an idea.
I've created a raffle.
First rule, Only enter once per household -- I will delete entries that are duplicate IP addresses.
Second rule, do not enter this raffle if you're under 13--let mom and dad enter for you.
Third rule, you must use the Rafflecopter app below to enter, and you must leave me a comment in this blog post with a hint, tip, or link to some helpful Aquila information.
Prizes? I don't know, not everyone will win, but I have some spare stuff here that I've never given away, and I may have a surprise gift or two, plus I have a number of Galvanic Hammers to give away!
Hallowe'en is a big deal in Wizard101. It was their first and only really big holiday content season. Sure, there's vendors and fun stuff for the other holidays, but when Halloween hits, there's towers, and quests, and decorations a plenty! It's fun, but after the hour or two of fun is finished, you were kind of like . . . yeah, I've done this before. yawn. next! However, that feeling coupled with all the in game legends about "what's behind the door next to the storm drain tower", and there's just a lot of awesomeness about this new holiday update for Wizard101!
Mmm hmm! It's a simple quest (at least for level 90 characters) that's cute and short, but it's awesome and a lot of fun too.
Sorry Professor Diapermancer, it took a few years, but now your answer to Bailey Firesword's question is incorrect.
It was Bailey's Skystaff's birthday yesterday, and (for a little bit of fun) we decided to give this new content a run through.
Dworgyn gave us the skinny.
Eek! Sure enough there was a sigil right there in front of the doorway that had been abandoned for so long.
Who knew it would be fortune seeking moles to break in there first and awaken the thirst of Nosferabbit and his undead veggies. After we entered, I ran ahead to check things out.
Bailey calmed my fears *cough* and in the end, we were just a couple meteor strikes and a Deer Knight away from Defeating Nosferabbit and getting to the real prize of this instance! Cheep Bird transformations and a Frankenbunny pet!
I think the Wizard101 team did a great job on this quest, and it was a lot of fun to play through with Uber Wife on her birthday.
We tried to run through Aquila as well, but we ran out of time before we needed to pick up "Professor Diapermancer" from school. :) I'll just save any discussion of Aquila for later.
